Friday, August 2, 2019

This week we return to the ancient Book of Job, the oldest book in the Bible. We visited the Book of Job in an earlier episode entitled "Calamity is not a punishment" (do not miss it!). And we return to this precious book -this long, beautiful poem- today to read chapter 28, known as the Song of Wisdom. Job declaims this song in the throes of his misery and calamity, which we discussed in detail in the episode mentioned. The Song of Wisdom praises man's creativity and ingenuity for finding riches in the deepest and most inaccessible places on earth. We will toil and accept any risk to acquire treasure. If there's any mineral or substance of value anywhere, we'll push each other out of the way to get there first. Wisdom is worth more than the greatest treasures on earth... but the man who seeks wisdom is rare. The Song of Wisdom ponders how men are willing to take unimaginable risks to descend into the bowels of the earth in tiny baskets or flimsy ropes, in search of treasures... and we do find riches in places that -as this poem tells us- not even the best eyes of the natural kingdom, the eyes of the falcon, will ever see... in places where not even the most powerful and fearsome beasts, like a lion, would ever dare to enter. Greedy for temporary riches, human beings dare to face any danger, to overcome all fear and the most harrowing darkness to find treasure in the most remote and inaccessible corners on earth. But wisdom - which is the greatest of all treasures - doesn't seem to be worth a similar effort. And sometimes we get lost looking for it in the wrong places. +++ Here Job 28 +++ Human beings are amazingly resourceful, brave and creative, but rarely wise. The beautiful Song of Wisdom presents Wisdom as the force that All-Knowing, All Powerful, All Merciful God used to order the cosmos, to create order out of the primordial chaos. And this is the reason why if we want to find wisdom, we should look for it in the divine because that's where wisdom is, with God. +++ Thanks for listening. If you liked it, express your wisdom with a "like", leaving me a comment, subscribing and sharing this podcast with your nearest and dearest.

Credits: Translation: Easy-to-Read Version (ERV)
Copyright © 2006 by Bible League International

Music: "Sihouette of Time's Idea", by Mid-Air Machine, from their album So We Telepathy: freemusicarchive.org "Where that ends and this begins", by Story @ Artlist.io